Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/140

 hold. Still other barges were laden with lumber and iron and similar stores. There were great cranes afloat and ashore.

Near by, too, an eagle boat lay in a dock. Henry was glad to see it. He had read about these submarine chasers during the war, but had never seen one close at hand. This vessel was something more than one hundred feet long, very narrow, low-lying, with some guns mounted on the low deck, and her superstructure amidships. Her wireless antenn&aelig; and her guns both held Henry’s attention. The longer he looked at her, the more he wondered that she could withstand the sea. He knew something about waves now, and he was sure that in a rough sea they would sweep across the decks of this little craft again and again. At once he gained a higher opinion of the hardy men who sailed these craft, in fair weather and foul, and guarded the shipping lanes during the war.

When Henry had seen all he could see from the immediate neighborhood of the Iroquois’ pier, he started to walk along the water-front. Almost the first thing he came upon was a submarine. He was immensely pleased to see one of these ships so close at hand. The tide was low, and the little craft sat in her dock as snug as a duck in the reeds. Like the torpedo boat and the eagle boat, the submarine was painted gray.